History of the Churches of the Pittsburgh Baptist Association

by William Pankey

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, OAKMONT, ORGANIZED 1889

The First Baptist Church of Oakmont was organized the same year the Pittsburgh Baptist Association celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. The church had its inception in the minds of a small group of earnest souls who on March 3, 1889, met and prayed in the home of George Lewis, Verona. Prior to that date, a Baptist church had been organized in Verona, but by 1889 it had gone the way of all disbanded churches.

The first meeting place of the Oakmont church was a large room above the Kent and Lashell Livery Stable, Verona. The organization of the church took place March 31, 1889, with twenty-two charter members. Later the congregation met in the Oakmont Presbyterian Church, and also in the school house on College Avenue. The present church edifice was erected in 1895. The mortgage was burned in 1912. The church celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with appropriate ceremonies in March, 1939. The present membership is 190.

The following ministers have served the church:

Rev. J. K. Kramer (1889), Rev. A. J. King (1890-1891), Rev. H. C. Hall (1891), Rev. D. E. Richards (1893), Rev. Randolph McCullough (1893-1895), Rev. T. J. Edwards (1895-1896), Rev. J. H. Higby (1896-1900), Rev. J. G. Lauderbaugh (1900-1902), Rev. a. W. Taft (1902-1905), Rev. S. J. Cunnings (1905-1907), Rev. J. W. McDouall (1908-1909), Rev. J. Dean Brown (1910), Rev. G. M. Shott (1911- 1912), Rev. A. C. Drummond (1913-1914), Rev. Thomas Lambert (1914-1917), Rev. George B. Lawson (1918), Rev. Arthur Gee (1918), Rev. L. D. Dunning (1920-1923), Rev. D. M. Lenox (1923- 1924), Rev. D. L. Wood (1924-1929), Rev. H. J. Blosse (1929), Rev. H. G. Hoffman (1930-1934), Rev. A. C. Hull, Jr. (1934-1939), Rev. Francis E. Cooper (1939 ).

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